Welcome to the Punch: Style vs. Substance

Eran Creevy is a director with great ambition. the young man, who once hustled his way onto Matthew Vaughn’s Layer Cake set, is clearly one of the fastest rising stars in British cinema. His acclaimed debut film Shifty gave a keen insight into the mindset of the low level criminal. With his second effort, Welcome to the Punch, he has made a bold and dramatic move in scope—instead of Shifty’s suburban council estate, this film features the ultra-stylish big city. Can Creevy pull off such a strong change?

At the heart of the picture is a fairly standard cops-and-criminals action-drama plot, including a rivalry between Mark Strong’s master criminal and James McAvoy’s disgraced policeman. Strong’s son is murdered in suspicious circumstances, which brings him out of hiding to hunt for the killer which set the acts of the movie in motion. McAvoy’s copper, Max, is obsessed with Strong’s character and much of the movie revolves around his relentless quest to put him behind bars.

The casting of McAvoy is interesting, as he’s playing substantially against type, but he never really pulls the role of a gritty London copper off. McAvoy is a fine actor, but this movie isn’t for him. The role calls for a meatier presence that that of McAvoy, who looks timid when clashing with his superiors. And McAvoy’s slim frame makes him look like a boy compared to Strong’s overwhelming aura. Someone like Tom Hardy or even Jason Statham would have suited the movie better. As for the rest of the cast, Strong is great as a villain, David Morrissey is superbly untrustworthy, Johnny Harris is as scary as ever and the likes of Daniel Mays, Andrea Riseborough, Peter Mullan and Jason Flemyng are always worthwhile.

But despite the established cast list, it all feels a bit of a waste. Welcome to the Punch is very low on character development as it sticks rigidly to its plot, which means a talent such as Riseborough has very little to do as her relationship with Max is severely underdeveloped. The movie also suffers from a lack of humor, which has graced all of the best crime movies—particularly those make in the UK. There are no wise-cracking or biting remarks, just the blandest of dialogue without any imagination. A sense of humor would definitely have given the movie a sense of fun. In fact, adding in a joke or two would have distracted from the formulaic plotting. This lack of character development, which would have (had it been good) included humor and likeable, empathetic characters, is the most detractive fault of the film.

But despite its many shortcomings, Welcome to the Punch is high velocity fun, that has Mark Strong at his imposing best. Ridley Scott was on hand as executive producer during the making of this film and essentially acted as Creevy’s mentor on the picture. Scott’s influence can definitely be seen in the visuals. There won’t be many better looking movies made this year, as it features a beautifully illuminated London. The film definitely owes a debt of inspiration to the visual stylings of Michael Mann—but that is essentially the problem with the film, it’s all style, no substance, and it feels like a squandering of potential.

Welcome to the Punch isn’t without its knockout blows. The action scenes are electric and thunder across the screen in a blitzkrieg of sight and sound. Creevy himself said that Andrew Lau and Alan Mak were influences for the picture, but Welcome to the Punch lacks the emotional depth of their films. After seeing the film, it would make more sense had Creevy credited John Woo as his muse.

Unfortunately, despite all the visual brilliance, the audience has been denied a chance to really get to know and care for its characters. As a stand-alone scene the finale is breathtaking visually and technically, but you just don’t care. It looks cool but without the character development, why should anyone give three toots about what happens? Creevy just doesn’t give us anything to absorb.

This film is in many ways the antithesis of Creevy’s first film Shifty, which was focussed on subtlety and nuance. Welcome to the Punch has energy in abundance, is frantically intense, and ultimately ends up as a mildly satisfying action experience, but it could have been so much more. Hopefully Creevy will recover from the grander scale of things that comes with initial success and learn to incorporate the subtle and engrossing nuance that he did so well before into his future projects.